HEMERO´DROMI
HEMERO´DROMI (
ἡμεροδρόμοι were couriers in the Greek states, who could keep on
running all day, and were often employed to carry news of important events.
As the Greeks had no system of posts, and but few roads, such messengers
must have been of great service. They were trained for the purpose, and
could perform the longest journeys in an almost incredibly short space of
time. (
Hdt. 6.105; Plat.
Protag.
335 E;
Corn. Nep. Milt. 4;
Plut.
Arist. 20;
Paus. 6.16.5.)
Such couriers appear to have been kept by most of the Greek states, and were
in times of danger stationed on some eminence in order to observe anything
of importance that might happen, and carry the intelligence with speed to
the proper quarter. Hence we frequently find them called
Hemeroscopi (
ἡμεροσκόποι,,
Hdt. 7.183,
192;
Xen. Hell. 1.1, § 2; Aeneas
Tact. 100.6). That the
Hemeroscopi were the same as the
Hemerodromi appears not only from the
passage of Aeneas Tacticus just referred to, but also from the words of Livy
(
31.24): “ni speculator (hemerodromos
vocant Graeci, ingens die uno cursu emetientes spatium), contemplans
regium agmen e specula quadam, praegressus nocte media Athenas
pervenisset.” The Hemerodromi were also called
Dromokerykes (
δρομοκήρυκες, Aeschin.
de F. L. § 130;
Harpocrat. and
Hesych. sub voce).
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